Deportations of Undocumented Immigrants Without Criminal Convictions Up 140 Percent in Houston Area

This Feb. 7, 2017, photo released by ICE shows a foreign national being arrested during a targeted enforcement operation aimed at immigration fugitives, re-entrants and at-large criminal aliens in Los Angeles.

“To accommodate a surge in the number of national immigration-related arrests along the U.S.-Mexico border, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) increased the capacity of its detention facilities in the Houston Field Office area of responsibility by approximately 500 beds. This increase in the detained population in the Houston Field Office led to a corresponding increase in the number of removals that occurred in June 2018,” the statement said.

Non-criminal ICE arrests in the area are up 18 percent to 337, looking at June numbers year-on-year.

Deportations of immigrants convicted of crimes increased by 13 percent to 947 in the same time period.

ICE arrests of immigrants convicted of crimes decreased by 10 percent to 957.